When the Past Becomes the Future
by Timbit the Lynx-Angel
Summary: Master Tigress - Master of the Tiger Kung Fu Style and the strongest of the Furious Five. Not even she knows her own past, but what happens when it starts to catch up with her? Many questions to be answered, even more to be asked. Tigress needs to stand up, face her past and fight for her own future.
1. Am I Getting Weak?

The sweat was dripping off her orange and black fur as she jumped forwards and smashed her clenched fist against the crocodile. In an instant he exploded in an explosion of wood. She then turned towards the wolverine that had popped up behind her. She turned around, jumped into the air and performed a powerful kick. When her foot contacted with his face, he exploded as well. Finally she landed on all fours in an almost crawling position, supporting her weight with her right hand and she was about to continue, but suddenly Master Shifu told her to stop.

"That will be enough, Tigress," he told her. Tigress stopped and got up, turned to her Master and bowed for him. As usual he wore his brown robes, but at that moment, he didn't wear his jade green shawl, which he did whenever they weren't training.

Tigress then looked back at all the dummies she had destroyed. There had been at least fifteen when she started, but now there were only splinters back. She didn't really like doing this kind of training; Tigress greatly preferred to spare with my fellow students. Unfortunately some of them were sent on a mission at the moment, and those who stayed behind were training children in Kung Fu down in the village, while Tigress had insisted on staying and training. She had just been having certain… issues lately.

She had kept feeling that something was missing in her life; as if she had forgotten something that she desperately needed to find. Therefore she had been training much more to fight off this feeling. But no matter how hard she was training; no matter how tired she was afterwards, the feeling was always there in the back of her mind.

With a sigh, the Kung Fu Master of the Tiger Style went to take a bath in the bathhouse of the Jade Palace. As Tigress slowly slid into the warm water, she sighed to herself. What had been causing these thoughts lately? It certainly wasn't a person… at least not because of any person she could imagine, so maybe it was _someone_ and not _something_ she had forgotten. Shifu, Po, Monkey, Viper, Crane, Mantis, could it be any of those people? No, when she thought about them, she just didn't feel as nostalgic as when she didn't think about anyone at all. Or maybe it was a place… some kind of location she could remember deep down in her subconscious. Maybe?

Tigress sighed once again and leaned back into the warm water. Maybe she was just fooling herself. She had no past before she came to the Jade Palace, so it couldn't be having anything to do with that time… but even if it had, then what? Regardless, there would only be one place where she could get answers… but even if she went back… the chances of finding anything would be very, very slim.

No, she wasn't going back. Now she had her life and her future here at Jade Palace with her friends… with her family. Hmm… _family_… something about that word seemed to ring a bell somehow… Could it have anything to do with her biologic family?

"My family…" Tigress whispered to herself… She didn't feel right saying that word out loud; it felt weird, somewhat awkward in fact. But what could she do about it? Her family had disowned her, leaving her at an orphanage, so how would she ever find them? And who even said that they were still alive? Maybe that was why she had ended up in the orphanage… Urgh, the time in the orphanage had been some of the worst years of her life.

* * *

Tigress sighed calmly as she looked out on the valley view before her. Viewing the mountains always calmed her down, especially from near the Peachtree of Heavenly Wisdom… Maybe it was the ancient, historical meaning of the place, or maybe it was just the fact that the cold breezes that blew around there weren't the same as elsewhere.

"Tigress?" She turned her face to the left and saw Viper approaching me. The yellow reptile softly slid along the ground towards me and Tigress turned my head back towards the view before her.

"Oh, it's you," Tigress said calmly. "Is there anything you want?"

Viper didn't reply, but simply looked at the view, seizing it alongside Tigress. The two of them just sat there for a minute or so without saying anything. Tigress would usually have repeated her question, wanting an answer right away, but this time she calmly and patiently waited for her reptile friend to speak up for herself.

"Actually there is," Viper replied without looking at Tigress. Tigress kept staring at the view, but she could tell that Viper suddenly turned her face towards her. "Has something been bothering you lately? You just seem so distant…"

"No, what would make you think that?" Viper didn't seem to buy it… typical. She was always so worried about others, even though they didn't need help of any kind. Finally Tigress sighed. "… Maybe kind of…"

"I thought so," Viper said and looked at her feline friend with a smile. "So tell me; what's bothering you?"

Tigress sighed again. She wasn't usually one to tell her feelings openly to others, so receiving such a request was a little challenging. How should she explain it, and still make it make sense? "Well… lately I've been feeling… different…"

"Different? Like what?" Viper asked. "Just tell me how you feel."

I turned my head and looked sternly at her. "Viper, you know that..."

"Yes, I know that you don't talk about what you feel, Tigress," Viper sighed. There was a few seconds of silence between the two. Tigress didn't want to talk, and Viper knew that. Yet Viper still asked.

Tigress sighed. "Fine, I've just… I've just been feeling like something's missing…"

"Like, you've lost something important?" Viper asked.

Instead of answering, Tigress asked: "Am I getting weak?"

"Weak?" Viper asked surprised. The two women sat there for a while without speaking. Viper knew that strength was one of Tigress' greatest attributes, but could it really affect her this bad? Could her strength really end up feeling like an item or belonging of hers? "I don't think you're getting weak… Maybe you just need to take a break… you've been doing nothing but training lately."

"Maybe..." Tigress thought about it… Maybe Viper was right… Maybe… No, deep inside, Tigress herself knew it wasn't just tiredness. Suddenly a dash of feathers landed beside the two.

"Tigress, Viper, we have a few problems downtown," Crane told the two. The white and black bird had seemingly hurried in order to get to the two and he pushed his straw-hat a little backwards, so that it didn't fall into his eyes. "Someone's trying to steal all the metal in the village."

"Again?" Viper asked annoyed. Yes, someone had tried to steal all the metal of Artisan Village a few years ago. Artisan Village was a little village a little away from the Valley of Peace, which had its name because there were many musicians living there.

"Alright, let's go," Tigress said calmly. Great, just what she needed to get her mind to focus on something else. As Tigress and her two friends left, Tigress decided to let her thoughts rest – if they kept bothering her like that, they could only pull her down and make her weaker.

* * *

Upon arriving in the village, Tigress and the others found Monkey, Mantis and Po fighting off a group of bandits. They were all small felines with light brown fur all over and spots and stripes here and there. They also had pointy ears, a black fluff at each tip and a very short tail… Lynxes. They all wore the same outfits – black Kung Fu jackets and pants with white trims. As Crane had told them, they were seemingly scattering the entire village, looking for metal. They had brought an enormous wagon, which already seemed loaded with various stuff – woks, kettles, spades, lots of metal.

Tigress saw that Po, Mantis and Monkey were already fighting the small felines, and soon she joined them along with Viper and Crane. Tigress jumped forwards and landed in front of a lynx that tried to attack a villager. The smaller feline took on a battle stance and so did Tigress.

Tigress suddenly noticed that the lynx wielded a dagger and he jumped towards her, swinging the dagger about towards Tigress. Tigress jumped backwards, dodging her attacker's dagger. The lynx ultimately failed to hit Tigress, but Tigress hit him in the chest with a double punch, knocking him backwards.

Next Tigress jumped forwards and kicked the lynx away, but was soon attacked by several others. Tigress bowed to dodge another dagger, then countered by punching the lynx in the stomach. Tigress slid her foot forwards towards the next foe, spun around and kicked him in the head, sending him flying into one of the wagons, which caused it to tip over. The metallic items that the lynxes had stolen fell onto the ground, but there were still two more wagons.

Tigress hit another lynx in the chest with a powerful punch, then another one and finally kicked another in the stomach with her entire shin. One last lynx tried to stab her from behind, but a punch to his head, even without turning around, was enough for Tigress to knock him out. Tigress was about to take on another squad of lynxes, but unexpectedly they ran over to one of the wagons and started to push and pull it away. Amazingly enough, despite how small they were, they managed to get the wagon to drive pretty fast, and they didn't seem to struggle much in order to keep up with it.

Having no need for waiting for the others, Tigress started chasing after the wagon. On all fours Tigress raced after the wagon, ignoring her friends calling for her to wait up.

But Tigress didn't listen – she had to do this to get her mind off her own problems; she had to focus on the problems of others… she had to get the stolen items back. Tigress pushed the pedal to the metal and picked up even more speed.

But suddenly the wagon stopped. Tigress made a small jump and extended her claws right before she landed. She slid forwards for a few seconds, then she finally stopped. The lynxes appeared from behind the wagon and joined those that were already behind it. The smaller felines walked up to face Tigress, but suddenly Tigress noticed something: she was surrounded.

Somehow she had actually failed to notice the little army of lynxes that had now formed a large circle around her. Tigress took on her usual battle stance and prepared herself to fight against the lynxes. But before she could even do that, she noticed movement out of the corner of her eyes – one from the right and one from the left.

Tigress turned her head to look at whatever it had been from one of the sides, but suddenly a few lynxes on either side were knocked aside. Tigress looked to her right and saw a stranger. He was tall, taller than her, and he was a wolf of some sort. His fur was gray with a brownish, his eyes were amber orange and he wore a white Kung Fu vest, which was similar to Tigress', though it had golden trims, and he didn't wear an additional robe around his waist. He also wore a pair of pants, which seemed to be made of a different material than Tigress, which gave them a more solid look.

From the left came a snow leopard. He had gray fur all over with black spots and his eyes were light blue – just like ice. He wore a black Kung Fu jacket and a pair of black pants. His jacket had a thick, silvery trim at the end of each sleeve and there were silver-colored metal fasteners all the way down his torso.

The duo made their way towards Tigress and formed a human shield around her as if they protected her; as if she couldn't fight by herself. The snow leopard flicked his hand and tigress just barely saw the shine from a silver ring on his middle finger. "Don't worry, Miss, we're here to save you."

Wait, what did he just say? Who were they and why were they…?

"Three…" the wolf started with a somewhat devious smile.

"… Two…" the snow leopard continued.

"… One…" the wolf counted, sounding more beat up now. The two had gotten into an almost sitting stand, ready to jump up at any second.

"… Showtime!" Without further warning, the two leaped up in each direction. Tigress just stood there and watched them take on the lynxes on both of her sides. Who were these people? Didn't they know that she was Master Tigress herself? She was a Master of Kung Fu – she didn't need to be saved!

The snow leopard jumped forwards with a backflip and kicked the first lynx in the chest, then spun around in a circle and hit another in the mid-section, while punching another in the face. He blocked the incoming attack from one of them and delivered a solid punch to his face. The snow leopard then jumped forwards and made a spin kick and hit two lynxes in the head. As one lynx came from behind him, he smashed his elbow backwards against his chest, then moved his hand upwards, hitting him in the face with the back of his hand. "What a nuisance."

"Well said." Tigress turned her head towards the wolf. He was also fighting with Kung Fu, but he seemed to use a more earth-bound style, since he didn't jump around as much as the snow leopard did. The wolf spun around, blocked an attack by putting his arms into an X-formation, then punched his attacker in the face. One of the lynxes then tried to slash the wolf with his dagger. The wolf had his arms in front of him in a defensive position. As the dagger's blade came towards his hands, the wolf moved the right arm upwards and the left one downwards, dodging completely. Before the lynx knew it, he was kicked in the chest.

"Pull back, pull back!" one of the lynxes shouted. Soon the little army of felines had disappeared entirely.

"Enemy: Showtimized," the snow leopard said slowly and flicked his hand again. Tigress just stood there for a second, trying to comprehend what had just happened. She had just been surrounded by the lynxes, yes that wasn't so hard. But then she had been 'saved' by these two strangers. What was up with that?

"Don't worry miss, you're in no danger now," the wolf told Tigress as the two approached her. She didn't quite trust them, so she kept her guard up – if they would try anything, she would be ready.

"Who are you?" Tigress asked in a suspicious tone of voice. The two seemed to know who she was… though they somehow didn't seem to know at the same time; they hadn't known that she knew Kung Fu, since they had fought the fight for her. Still, the way they had made sure that none of the lynxes even got close to her was more careful than any normal rescuer would be.

"Don't worry miss," the wolf started. "We're…"

"Allow _me_ to explain!" the snow leopard said loudly and pushed the wolf out of the way. Before even the snow leopard got to explain the older wolf got him into a chokehold. "What's your problem?"

"My problem is you standing in front of me!" the wolf growled as the snow leopard struggled to get free. Tigress raised her eyebrow and watched the duo for a moment. For a second, Tigress would have thought that the two were siblings.

"Tigress, where…! Who are they?" Po asked as he and the others joined Tigress. The scene before them sure was weird, but no one asked any questions… they simply watched the two fight and argue for a moment.


	2. Entering the Past

"Okay, why did you two interfere?" Mantis asked. The two strangers were facing Po and the Five, who were ready anytime if they tried anything. The wolf and the snow leopards sure had saved Tigress, but it wasn't certain that they could be trusted just yet – it just seemed too convenient that two strangers would suddenly barge in and save her. "Tigress could handle it herself."

"Tigress?" the wolf asked. He didn't sound ignorant or anything, but rather confused. Soon enough he realized that Tigress was in fact a tigress. "Oh, that's your… name? Or is it a nickname?"

"No, that is my name," Tigress replied calmly as she still looked at the two in a very suspicious way. "Who are you two?"

"My name is Yin Yueliang," the snow leopard introduced himself with a calm and cool tone of voice. Tigress didn't recognize his name or anything about him, but he was also kind of hard to 'read' – he seemed cold and also seemed to be locking the world out as if he didn't want anyone to get near him – just like Tigress had been earlier that day.

"And I'm…" the wolf started and pushed the snow leopard out of the way – he had been standing in front of the wolf the whole time. "My name is Jin Taiyang."

No, Tigress couldn't seem to remember those names… _Jin Taiyang… Yin Yueliang_… Whoever they were, they talked to her as if she _should_ know who they were. Had they been stalking Tigress or the others in any way? Maybe that was how they managed to appear out of thin air and save Tigress. But no, they didn't even know her name… so they most likely weren't – unless they were lying.

"Why are you even here?" Viper asked the two – even she did not seem to trust them.

"Because we…"

"It was pretty much just to save Tigress," Yin interrupted the wolf and walked in front of him. In response Jin kicked the back of Yin's leg, bringing him to his knees, then grabbed him by his neck skin and threw him aside.

"No, there's much more reason behind it," Jin finally said in a more serious tone of voice. Jin quickly looked around as Yin got to his feet and walked over to him. "But maybe we should get back to the Jade Palace first."

"You know of Jade Palace?" Crane asked suspiciously.

"Duh, who doesn't?" Yin asked and brushed the dust off of his jacket.

"True, true," Monkey agreed, and eventually they all nodded to themselves as they realized that it was true. Eventually they all started walking back towards the palace. For a minute or so they walked in silence, mainly because no one really trusted Yin and Jin, but eventually Po managed to break the silence.

"That fighting you did back there was pretty cool," he said, letting his inner Kung Fu fan boy peek out, which the Five could easily sense, since it was a common part of their lives. "What styles do you use?"

"I use Nan Quan," Jin replied.

"Oh~, so you're from the south," Po said, sounding somewhat surprised. Come to think of it, Tigress could actually hear a slight difference in the way that he pronounced some words and he also talked a little bit faster than the others. "Cool, what about you Yin?"

"Feng Shou," Yin replied calmly. He then did a few quick battle stances. "Even faster than the Viper and Mantis styles combined."

"We'll have to see about that one day," Mantis said, sounding somewhat insulted and bitter, while Viper just seemed to ignore this comment. Maybe Yin just had an arrogant attitude and didn't even know the other styles very well, Tigress thought… or maybe he had a very, very bad sense of humor.

"So who taught you in your styles? Master Oogway?" Po asked, sounding somewhat hopeful. Master Oogway was the founder of Kung Fu, who passed away about two or three years ago. He was also considered the greatest and the wisest of all Masters, even surpassing Tigress and the others' Master, Shifu.

"No; if he had, do you think, I would have the attitude that I have?" Yin asked, confusing the others a little. Was he fully aware that he was acting incredibly ignorant? None of the Five, or Po for that matter, had ever met someone who would fully admit that he was an egoist.

"I was taught by Oogway for a while, then I was taught by Master Wolf for a while and then I finished my training with Master Shunfeng," Jin replied. Tigress and the others couldn't help but wonder why he had switched Master three times. Maybe because he was training with other students at the same time and maybe he was either ahead or behind the others. Or maybe he just chose to try and train with different Masters. "And I taught Yin how to fight, but definitely not how to behave."

"No, I taught myself that, thank you," Yin said sarcastically. "But you guys don't have to tell us; we know all about you."

"You do?" Po asked and the others stopped walking, looking at Jin and Yin in a very suspicious way.

"No, all we really know is that you train with Master Shifu and you live at Jade Palace," Jin said and gave Yin a stern look, which the snow leopard fully ignored. The duo started walking and so did the others, though they were even more suspicious towards them now.

"Then I suppose you also know about the incident in Gongmen City," Crane said suspiciously, though he also sounded a little curious. Both Jin and Yin nodded.

"Of course – Lord Shen, the canon, the battle…" Jin stopped for a few seconds and looked at Po for a second. "… your family – everything."

"Wait, what?" Po asked surprised, somewhat shocked in fact. How would these two know about his family? Or were they only referring to what Shen did to them? That would be more likely, so Po decided to go with that.

"What? Of course we know the cause of Shen's actions," Jin replied, confirming Po's relief, even though it also made the tiny hope he had inside die down again. Oh well, if his family _was_ alive, it would be up to him to find them… someday.

Eventually the duo along with Po and the Furious Five arrived back at the Jade Palace. It had taken quite a while to get there, mainly because Jin and Yin had argued most of the way through the village… about stuff that had almost driven Tigress and her friends insane by the time they reached the palace.

The front gate was opened by the palace's staff members and the eight warriors walked inside. Jin and Yin didn't seem as amazed and amused as Po had the first time he really got to see what was behind the gates… or maybe they had even been there before.

"So?" Po asked the two.

"So what?" Yin asked, sounding somewhat ignorant.

"So?... is that your only reaction to entering this place?"

"Pretty much," Yin said, calmly as if it was a stupid question that didn't need to be answered.

"Have you been here before?" Tigress asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, we were here before we went to save you," Jin replied. Tigress still didn't like the sound of that sentence – she didn't _need_ to be saved. If they hadn't arrived, she still would have defeated the lynxes faster than they could do their "Three, two, one, showtime!"

The eight continued across the beautiful outside are of the palace where some of the students' training took place. There was even one of the stands for their Bo Staffs they sometimes used for training, since someone (Monkey) had seemingly forgotten to take it inside after he had used it. But as soon as the eight had passed by it, three of the geese that worked in the palace staff finally decided to move it inside.

"Those guys are so fun," Jin said once the three geese were gone.

"Fun?" Crane asked.

"Yeah, you could almost get them to do anything for you." The wolf chuckled a little to himself, and none of the others, not even Yin, could see the funny thing in what he had just said moments ago. Or maybe he had somehow abused them when they were there earlier, like told them to get him a lot of things, even though it probably would have annoyed Shifu.

Finally they all entered the Hall of Warriors – after telling Yin and Jin to touch absolutely none of the artifacts in the hall. The Hall of Warriors was a legendary hall full of mementos of dead Kung Fu Masters, completely exclusive to Jade Palace. Most of the artifacts had all belonged to Masters who were so legendary that anyone who practiced Kung Fu would know who they were – at least Po and the Five knew them.

Tigress looked over at Jin and Yin and noticed that they hardly seemed impressed, even though it was as if they were searching for something as they walked through the Hall… maybe they were thieves! No, if they were, why would they even go get Tigress and her friends before trying to steal something? That was both illogical and stupid.

Finally Tigress could see the recognizable figure of her Master, standing in front of the Dragon Pool and looking into the water. The pool was somewhat deep, but it was famous for the golden dragon statue that hung from the ceiling above it. In its mouth, the dragon statue housed the legendary Dragon Scroll, the artifact, which was what had made Po the Dragon Warrior he was today, even though most of him was something he had made himself… handcrafted so to speak.

Shifu's ears twitched as he heard the others approach and he slowly turned around to face them. Shifu had a very serious face on, in fact he also looked a little worried.

"Have you explained everything to them?" Shifu asked. Jin and Yin nodded. Obviously they had met and talked earlier that day, since Shifu seemed to have a very calm attitude towards them… at least Jin.

"Yes… Well… kind of… the most important details have been left out, but we'll tell them right away," Jin said, making the others hold their breath in expectation, waiting for the wolf to explain.

"Please start with why you're here," Shifu said calmly.

_Or why you're really here,_ Tigress thought as she and her friends sat down alongside Shifu as Jin and Yin were about to explain.

"We came here to protect… you, whatever your name was," Yin said and turned towards Tigress. Tigress just raised an eyebrow and the others were amazed at how disrespecting Yin had just addressed Tigress.

"She already told you, her current name is Tigress," Jin growled at Yin in a warning tone, signaling that Jin wanted him to use a more polite and respecting tone.

"Current name?" Po asked confused. He wasn't the only one who was confused – everyone else in the Hall was on the fence of not trusting the duo. They almost still too weird to trust – not that they couldn't be trusted.

"Yeah, what do you mean with that?" Mantis asked confused. He sat on Monkey's shoulder and Yin seemed to have failed to notice him up till now… even though he had heard him talk earlier.

"What we mean is that her name right now is Tigress," Yin replied mysteriously. Tigress and everyone else looked at each other, none of them understanding whatever the two were talking about. "Just like you, Dragon Warrior; your current name is Po Ping, right?"

"Eh… yes," Po replied, sounding very confused. Did they know something about him that Po didn't even know himself? If so, what was it, and how did they know? "But what are you…?"

"Nothing, we just saved the lady, that's what's important," Yin interrupted Po and started walking back and forth in front of the others. Now Tigress couldn't stand it anymore.

"Fine, I understand you saved me for some reason, and I'm grateful for that, but why?" Tigress finally asked, trying to say it as calmly as she could manage. "That's all I want to know."

Jin quickly pushed Yin out of the way before the snow leopard could come up with some kind of rude answer. "Right, I guess we need to explain that. It started a long time ago…"

* * *

Jin: "It was about twenty-five years ago, back when I was a young man…"

Yin: "Skip that – it's got nothing to do with her!"

Jin: "I was just trying to give them an idea of how long ago it was!"

Shifu: "Doesn't matter, just continue."

Jin: "Oh well, there was this man called Wangji Guoqu. He was a very rich lord, who owned a big fortress in the southern mountains."

_A grown tiger stood in front of a big door – the door to his palace. He had orange fur all over with black stripes and some white fur on his muzzle. He wore some very formal robes, which were mainly red with some golden details and trims._

Po: "But what's that got to do with Tigress?"

Yin: "You'll see."

Crane: "See?"

Yin: "Hear, whatever; it's not important, back to the story!"

Jin: "Yeah, well, either way, he also had a family – a beautiful wife called Meifeng." _A beautiful tigress came out through the door and joined her husband as they looked out over a beautiful valley. She had orange fur all over, just like her husband did as well as black stripes and some white on her muzzle. She wore a beautiful fiery red silk dress with black trims and golden flame and phoenix patterns._

Jin: "But your-, I mean Wangji had a rival. His name was Hei Shi Kongju."

_The picture changed to that of a black lion standing atop a fortress, looking out at a big valley. He wore some dark gray robes with golden trims, almost of as high quality as Wangji and his wife's outfits. For some reason it was also stormy around Hei Shi and his black mane was waving in the wind._

Jin: "And Hei Shi had a giant army…" _There were also a lot of guards guarding a nearby palace; Hei Shi's palace._ "… Actually they were all outcasts, whom he had promised a better life if they obeyed him… Anyways, he was still very jealous towards Wangji."

Viper: "Why?"

Jin: "Because the two had grown up in the same town, and Wangji had always been better and more successful at everything… That's why."

Viper: "Oh, okay…"

Jin: "Where were we… oh, right, the two also knew Kung Fu like we do. The one day where the real hatred started, they both took part in a Kung Fu tournament."

_Wangji and Hei Shi stood facing each other in a ring surrounded by many spectators. The arena was surrounded by tall walls, and was very similar to the Jade Palace, except it was much, much higher quality – amazingly enough. More of the tiles in the roof were golden and there was room for even more spectators than there was at Jade Palace._

_Hei Shi jumped forwards with a powerful kick, but Wangji jumped backwards, spinning around and hitting Hei Shi in the back with a kick, sending the black lion straight into the ground. Hei Shi just barely managed to land on his feet by supporting himself with his hand. Soon enough he jumped up again and attacked Wangji with a hail of fast and powerful Lion Punches. Wangji managed to dodge and block most of them and finally got Hei Shi's one arm in a lock with his own, then delivered a massive punch to the black lions face. Hei Shi stumbled backwards for a bit, then he was hit by a kick to his chest. Hei Shi fell backwards and landed on the ground… outside the ring. And thus the match was decided._

Jin: "Wangji easily outmatched Hei Shi."

Mantis: "And that's really the only thing that made Hei Shi angry with Wangji?"

Jin: "No, Hei Shi had also been in love with Lady Meifeng, who later married Wangji, which also factors in on the hatred that Hei Shi felt towards Wangji."

* * *

"That's not nice," Monkey said once Jin was done explaining.

"Definitely not," Jin said in a serious tone of voice. After that there was completely silent for a moment. Tigress tried to understand what this story meant… if it even had anything to do with anything.

"So those lynxes worked for Hei Shi?" Po asked. It seemed likely as they seemingly weren't working by themselves. At least, they didn't seem to really steal it, but rather bring it to someone. Otherwise, they probably wouldn't have been using wagons.

Suddenly Tigress noticed that Yin hadn't been saying a word all along – all he did was just sit by himself and stare at the ring on his finger. It seemed a little weird, since Tigress had already learned that he wasn't that much of a quiet type, so this seemed out of character to her.

"But what's that got to do with me?" Tigress finally asked, a question that had been on her mind all the while. There were a few possible answers, of which one in particular had started a flame inside of her – one that would change her life forever. Her heart was now beating faster and she just waited for her answer.

Jin looked at her for a moment, then at Yin, then at the others. He was a little unsure of what to tell her, which Yin could see in his eyes. In response Yin sent him a look, which told him to just say the truth. Jin turned back to Tigress. "You see… Wangji was at one point murdered by Hei Shi, and since then he's kept Meifeng hostage. But Wangji and Meifeng also had children – three. One of them was murdered by Hei Shi's army. The two others… I had to bring the daughter to an orphanage, while I dropped the son off in the village in which Wangji and Hei Shi were born – Hei Shi hated that place, so I figured he wouldn't go there. But I separated them just to make sure that they wouldn't be harmed."

The room was silent for a few minutes. No one said anything, just simply stared at each other as they were all realizing what Jin was talking about. But no one even dared asking… except for Crane.

"Wait, so… so Tigress is one of them?" Crane asked cautiously. Everyone in the room kept quiet for a few more seconds. Tigress felt completely hollow inside as if this news had just washed everything she had ever thought and known away. In fact, Tigress had once thought that she had been abandoned because she was unwanted. But now that had changed.

"Yes," Yin replied without even looking at the others. Finally he looked directly at Tigress, his cold blue eyes meeting her fiery orange ones. "You are Wangji's daughter… Aiyun Guoqu."

* * *

Here ya' go! The second chapter! ^^ I was pretty hesitant on putting this up, since it's already explaining a lot of things, and I wanted to make the dramatic build up, which I guess I failed at, but oh well... I hope you still liked it! C:


	3. The Beginning of a Journey

Empty… hollow… lacking… stunned… There were many ways to describe how Tigress felt. All her life she had wanted to know the true answers about her past… even then she had always suppressed them, being afraid the answers were too much to bear. Now they seemed to be. Her family was dead – that was why she was where she was. _But what did you expect?_ Tigress could hear the words ring through her mind as she told herself to be realistic. There she was – the great Master Tigress, the definition of 'hardcore' – on her knees, feeling weaker than she ever had. The truth had hit her like an army of rhinos – hard.

"T-Tigress… are you… okay?" Po asked carefully, but Tigress paid no attention to anyone else but herself. No words – caring, worried or comforting – reached her even though the others were right next to her.

All her life… All her life… No, this wasn't about her, it was about… Who was it about, if it wasn't about her? About her father? Or about Hei Shi? Or even about Jin and Yin?  
But Jin and Yin had come to save her randomly; maybe it was because Hei Shi was after her. But if he was, why would he send his minions to randomly steal all the metal in the village? When Lord Shen had sent his minions to steal metal from Artisan Village, it had been because he had had to gather material to build his weapons. Was it the same purpose here? If it really was, was Hei Shi also creating some kind of weapon maybe?

"Are you okay, yes or no?" Yin asked somewhat ignorantly. No one seemed to even notice his comment and seemed to worry more about Tigress' state of mind, which made the snow leopard somewhat anxious and annoyed.

"… No, I'm _not_ okay!" Tigress finally growled at him, making everyone jump in surprise. Listening to the other feline wasn't quite what Tigress needed at the moment; she had just heard the truth about her family – a truth that she had been aching to know! Sure she had felt somewhat paralyzed, but Yin's tone of voice had just killed the moment.

"How could you also ask such a thing at this moment?" Jin growled, and within seconds he had managed to drag Yin all the way to the end of the Hall of Warriors and throw him outside. Jin used his entire body to block the door, which caused Yin knocked on the door a few times while yelling in protest, then finally stopped and supposedly left. Jin sighed and walked up to the others once the younger snow leopard was gone.

"I apologize for Yin," Jin told Tigress in a comforting tone of voice. Tigress simply nodded. She sighed. No, she couldn't let such a weak and vulnerable side of her show – not towards her friends, who knew the hard and tough Tigress.

"Thanks for the sympathy Jin, but it is not necessary," Tigress said, putting up the hardest stone face she could manage.

"Not necessary?" Jin asked confused – everyone else seemed confused as well. But eventually, after a few seconds, Jin was the only one who hadn't realized that Tigress was just trying to cover up her feelings.

"I…" Jin got eye contact with Viper, who shook her head, signaling that it was best to let it be for a while. "Alright, if you say so Ms. Guoqu."

That name was like a needle to Tigress heart. She immediately clenched her fist, which Jin noticed. "You know what? I'll just go see what Yin is doing – that boy is… well, difficult."

The Tibetan Wolf walked towards the door to the Hall of Warriors in a hurry, but suddenly the door was rapidly opened before he reached it, and a object flew inside. The object hit Jin and sent him flying backwards. Jin noticed that the object was soft, organic and covered in fur. When he landed on the floor, he immediately pushed the lynx off and looked towards the door and saw Yin, who had just seemingly used some kind of powerful Kung Fu technique, as he stood in a pose with his right hand pointed towards the open door.

"Guys, I can explain this…" Yin said, but before he could even explain, the others noticed that there was a bunch of knocked out lynxes on the outside area of the palace, as well as a few that were charging Yin.

Yin moved both of his hands to the right side of his torso and bended his legs, ready to jump. Just as two lynxes – one from each side – charged him, the snow leopard jumped into the air and spun around, amazingly managing to hit both lynxes in the head with his feet, knocking them out.

"Right, guess we'll have to do this," Jin said and walked up next to Yin. "Three."

"Two." The two bowed down, preparing to jump forwards. Yin's other fingers gently caressed the silver ring on his middle finger.

"One." Jin placed a hand on the ground.

"Showtime!" Yin proclaimed and jumped off the ground at the same time as Jin. Jin jumped forwards with a more precise targeting of the lynxes, while Yin jumped higher into the air, not really aiming at any of the lynxes, just hoping to hit someone.

"Ha-ha, awesome!" Po said amused as he and the others watched the duo fight for a moment. But soon the seven other Kung Fu Masters joined Jin and Yin.

* * *

Jin's feet slid across the ground until he finally stopped – by using his fist and a lynx's head to stop. As a pose to that, Yin flew forwards through the air and hit a lynx in the head with his right foot and made a graceful landing after doing a backflip. Jin spun around in a circle and smashed his shin against the torso of another lynx, sending the small feline flying.

Yin jumped backwards to dodge the blade of one of the lynxes' dagger. He jumped forwards and kicked him in the head, knocking him out and causing him to make several spins midair before hitting the ground. Yin turned around and suddenly saw the lynx that Jin had sent flying. He then jumped high into the air towards the smaller feline, spun around, and with a solid kick he managed to shoot the lynx towards his teammates. The flying lynx managed to knock out two other lynxes!

Jin charged forwards, punching several lynxes away with powerful punches. He continued onwards, even when the lynxes tried to slash him with their daggers – the wolf simply ducked and kicked their mid-sections or legs at the same time. Finally Jin ended up with his back against Yin.

"Guess we'll have to finish this," kid," Jin said as a bunch of lynxes surrounded the two.

"Okay, but I'm not a kid," Yin said. "Let's go extreme on this one!"

"Right." And with that, Jin turned around and along with Yin he charged the lynxes on one side of them. The small felines immediately moved out of the way, just like the two had wanted.

Once the lynxes were gathered in one group and charged the two, Yin bowed down in a similar to his Countdown-Pose, but Jin got behind Yin by doing an elegant spin around himself.

Right then and there Yin jumped high into the air, making an elegant front flip and raised his hand, ready to strike once he landed. Meanwhile Jin charged the lynxes. Before he reached them, Yin landed on the ground while hitting one lynx in the face with a punch, then made a spin kick towards the right, hitting a few other lynxes. Once Yin had turned all the way around, he hit another lynx in the face with his elbow, then jumped forwards and punched a few more lynxes in the face. Right after that, Jin charged forwards and punched down the last remaining lynxes.

"Enemy: Showtimized," Yin said, and stopped to catch his breath. He and Jin then turned towards the others, who had also managed to defeat the smaller groups of lynxes.

"Ms., you cannot stay here," Jin told Tigress as he walked towards her. "Hei Shi will keep sending his forces until you're all too exhausted or injured to fight. We need to find somewhere safe for you to be."

"I do appreciate your caring Master Taiyang," Tigress started calmly. "But I cannot just leave Jade Palace – it's my home and… I can't just leave the others behind on their behalf."

"It's got nothing to do with behalves," Yin told her, sounding more serious than ever. "It's about getting you to safety, whether you want or not. Do you understand?"

"Wait." Everyone looked over at Po. As the panda didn't say anything, Viper instead took the word.

"If Tigress was to leave," she started. Please let, at least some of us travel with her."

"Viper, if this is something about Tigress and her safety, we shouldn't try to slow her down," Master Shifu said calmly. "If this is something she has to do, then…"

Meanwhile Jin and Yin just looked at each other, and seemingly had a mute conversation with one another somehow. Maybe they didn't know what to do about what Viper said… bring some of the others.

"Alright then," Jin finally said after he and Yin had made up their minds. "So, who wants to…? No, not all of you!"

Everyone put down their hands (Wing and tail in Crane and Viper's case.

"I agree, Master Jin," Master Shifu said calmly and looked all his students over. Finally the red panda chose who he wanted to go with Tigress. "Crane, Mantis, you can go with them." That left the palace with four out of seven Kung Fu Masters. Clever move, Tigress thought. That way there will also be people back here to protect Jade Palace.

"Okay, that settles it," Yin said and took on a dramatic pose after turning around, so that he stopped in front of Jin. "Yin and Jin are off again… this time with a little help."

"Hey, who do you call 'little?'" Mantis growled at Yin after which Jin also took the liberty to kick him aside.

"I guess this is where I say goodbye… for now," Tigress told her friends, who were to remain at the palace to protect the valley. She felt hollow inside. She was certain that it was only for a short period of time, but still – she wanted to let go of her feelings… she wanted to cry.

"It's okay," Monkey said in a comforting tone. "We'll see each other again I'm sure."

Tigress opened her mouth to speak further, but before she could, Viper, Monkey and Po caught her in a hug. Usually she wouldn't see Viper and Monkey do this (Po had once), and usually she wouldn't have accepted it, but now she did. Her strong arms locked around the shoulders of her friends for a short moment, then she finally let go.

"Goodbye my friends," she said, feeling very heavy inside… She felt as if her heart was a boulder.

"No Tigress," Po said with an encouraging smile. "It's 'I'll see you,' remember that."

Tigress smiled at her panda friend, even though she wanted to look sad at this moment. After hearing Yin somewhat impatiently telling her to come along, Tigress turned around and with a heavy heart she walked towards the gate of Jade Palace.

Just before she exited the gate, she stopped to look back at her friends and her Master. All of them had sad faces on, and Tigress could clearly tell that there was a lot that Shifu wanted to tell her before she left… that was if she had had the time.

"Goodbye Jade Palace," Tigress whispered to herself and finally exited the gates of the palace – the gates of her home.

* * *

Finally I got around to finish the third chapter. I hope you guys liked it, even though I gave our little Tigress a softer side than what you see normally (Was it too much?).  
Also, I made a new account with my wonderful girlfriend, and fellow fanfiction writer, AnimationGirl. It's called Animation Lynx Angel, so please go check that out and vote on our poll. Which reminds me, we'd better get a new poll up soon...  
Either way, I'll see you next time. Bye~!


	4. Building Tensions

Yin took off the silver ring on his middle finger. He turned it around in his hand a couple of times. It had a little blue gemstone on top, but other than that, it wasn't anything extraordinary.

"Why am I doing this?" Yin muttered to himself. He stopped and stared at the ring for a couple of seconds. "I'm doing this for Wangji and no one else… Jin knows that."

"Did you say something?" Mantis asked from Jin's shoulder.

"…" Yin put on his ring again. "No… nothing… nothing at all."

"Does he often do that?" Mantis asked Jin. "You know, talk to himself?"

"No, not really," Jin relied calmly. Yin just grumbled an answer that no one even heard and kept going along with the others.

Tigress was walking up front, though a little behind Jin and Mantis. Crane was in the back and now, from what Tigress could hear, he was trying to start a conversation with Yin.

Tigress herself hadn't spoken a word on the entire journey – just those few hours they had been off. Obviously the others knew that she wouldn't appreciate being disturbed now. She had plenty of things to think about after all; herself, her past, her family, her friends and what she was going to do from now on. She couldn't just keep hiding – she would have to face Hei Shi sooner or later.

"Enjoy life, Aiyun," Yin suddenly said. At first Tigress didn't react, but eventually she looked over at the snow leopard and realized that he was walked right beside her. "Life… Did you know?"

"Know what?" Tigress sighed, not really in the mood to talk.

"That life is Showtime?" Yin asked. Tigress didn't reply. It sounded stupid to her – Life is Showtime… no, she couldn't really take it seriously – let alone understand it for that matter.

"What do you mean?" she asked Yin, suddenly feeling more of an urge to talk – maybe it would get her mind off of all these complicated things to talk about why life was… Showtime.

"I mean that life is just like a performance," Yin replied. "Destiny is your script, but you can always feel free to improvise."

"Sometimes you can't," Tigress replied coldly.

"Lady Aiyun, I'd suggest that you listen," Jin told Tigress. "The kid's Show-philosophy is actually pretty useful."

"Exactly," Yin agreed with his Master – agreeing for once. "You see, if you choose to be the instructor, you get to decide everything yourself… or you can be the actor and do what you're told without questioning it."

"Are you telling Tigress to just leave and do what she feels is right?" Crane asked, having picked up on Yin's logic, which was mixed into the philosophy.

"Who knows?" Yin asked with a sigh and stretched his arms. "Aiyun can do whatever she wants if you ask…"

"Or maybe she could stay and let us carry out our mission of protecting her," Jin interrupted the snow leopard and kicked him away. It was almost as if Jin was holding Tigress hostage… or maybe that was just something Tigress felt on the inside.

"I still can't get used to that name…" Mantis said, referring to Tigress' real name. Just the first character in the name, Ai, which meant 'love', was hard getting used to – especially when it involved Tigress.

"Me neither," Tigress muttered with a sigh. She felt disappointed as she had just gotten her mind onto other things than her own past.

Jin looked into the sky. "The sun is almost completely set… maybe we should find shelter for the night. Crane, can you try flying upwards and see if there are any villages nearby?"

"On it," Crane replied, then spread out his wings and started rising upwards. Crane kept rising and once he had reached a good height, he stayed in that height, scouting out for a place to spend the night. Hmm... Ah, there was something that looked like a village!

"There's a village that way," Crane instructed once he had descended again. "It seems fairly big, I'd say."

"Alright, then let's go there," Jin decided. "I just hope we won't get thrown out again."

"Hey, who knew their peach trees were holy?" Yin growled at Jin.

"He loves peaches," Jin told Mantis.

"Wait. Yin, did you come across the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom back at the palace?" Crane asked, sounding a little suspicious.

"Yes."

"Wait, how many peaches did you eat?" Jin growled.

"Hmm…" Yin stopped to think for a moment, then replied: "All of them."

"You little…!" Yin just barely dodged being put into a chokehold by Jin. Oddly enough, Tigress didn't care much for the sake of the tree and the peaches. She was just hollow.

Ignoring, the miniature fight between Jin and Yin, Tigress kept walking. That moment, it was as if she had isolated herself from the world, hidden inside a bubble.

Who even cared about the peaches on the tree at this point? The sooner Tigress could be brought to wherever Jin and Yin were leading her, the better. "Can you save it for later?"

Jin stopped in the middle of his lecture and let Yin escape his chokehold – in fact, Jin actually threw the snow leopard aside. "As you wish, Lady Aiyun."

"Hmm…" Tigress said, not appreciating being addressed like an empress or something similar – it simply didn't fit her, at least according to herself. All her life, she had only been addressed as Master Tigress and, even that, she had had a humble opinion about. Why change that now?

The group entered a forest, which the village Crane had spotted was beyond. It wasn't very dense and there was plenty of light in it from the last sunrays, forming various-shaped shades on the forest floor.

The group followed a trail and everyone kept looking out for any kind of trouble – except Tigress. It wasn't because she didn't feel the need to with everyone else around, but it was because she still couldn't focus; especially when her friends were acting like she was Royal. It just didn't feel right… at all.

"Yin, can't you put on a smile?" Jin asked his student. As Tigress looked over at the snow leopard, she could see that he did have quite an unhappy face on.

"Why should I? I didn't even ask to get here and do this," Yin growled at Jin.

"Okay, I understand that you don't want to do this, but just do whatever else you want, but don't talk to me with that-…" The wolf was cut off by a powerful punch to his face. Jin fell backwards, landing on his buttocks.

Everyone looked over at Yin with very surprised expressions. The young snow leopard looked angry – almost murderous. He had hit Jin with his left hand, and that ring was sure to leave a mark.

"You know as well as I, why I don't want to do this," Yin growled. His breathing was incredibly heavy as if he had just released a very heavy pressure off his shoulders. "I'm tired of just being the student, who does whatever his Master wants him to!"

A deathly silence spread throughout the forest – even the wind stopped blowing. Everyone looked from Jin to Yin and back at Jin again. Tigress was probably the one who was the most surprised. She, herself, had once defied Master Shifu, but not in such a way – she had never hurt him or even wanted to.

"… Yin…" Jin started, but Yin stopped him by clenching his fist and holding it towards Jin. The silver ring, at least the blue gemstone, almost seemed to radiate light in the low lighting of the forest.

"I already told you before we embarked on this journey," Yin said in a cold tone of voice. "For Wangji. That's who I'm doing this for… and my father as well."

"I see," Tigress said, speaking for the first time in a while. She now understood that Yin was just like herself – trying to make someone proud of him. "You just want to make your father proud of you, am I right?"

"No, you're not," Yin said with a glare. "My father is dead – just like yours."

"…" Tigress did not know what to reply to this – she knew from personal experiences that dead parent could be a sensitive subject.

"But… Yin, are you just leaving us?" Crane asked confused.

The snow leopard sighed. "No, not quite yet."  
"Yet? What do you mean with that?" Mantis asked. There had already formed a cold and fog-like atmosphere around the little group – an invisible wall forming between Jin and Yin. It could almost be sensed how the teacher and his student were falling apart this moment.

"I mean that I'll come with you to that village," Yin said, turning around and looking away for a moment. "Then I have to decide what I'll do."

* * *

So, a somewhat short chapter, revealing a new side to Yin. We'll see where we go from here. ;) BTW, my girlfriend and I published a new story on our shared account, Animation Lynx Angel. It's called Legends of Epicness, a new version of Legends of Awesomeness, just adding what LoA missed. So please check that out! :D See ya' with my next update!


	5. A Friend with Merits?

Upon arriving in the village, the group found that it was empty – deserted. There were no people at all, and Tigress' first impression was that everyone was inside, eating dinner.

Jin tried to knock on the door of one of the houses, but there was no response. He knocked again – nothing. "I guess there's nobody home."

"But where can they have gone off to?" Mantis wondered out loud. It seemed weird that people would just leave an entire village like this.

"Either way, I say we just stay here till morning, whether people will come back or not," Yin said and headed for one of the houses. He was about to enter, but Jin got in his way.

"Need I remind you that that'd be illegal?" Jin asked his student.

"Need I remind you of this?" Yin growled back and held up a clenched fist towards Jin, showing off his ring. Tigress and the others were a little shocked – never had they, themselves, threatened with violence, let alone threatened him. It appeared impossible to understand for Tigress – all her life, all she had ever done, was to make her Master proud, done whatever he had wanted her to do. Seeing this kind of relationship between a Master and his student was… quite strange, almost unbelievable.

Jin didn't say anything and after being shoved aside by Yin, he sighed.

"If you had been Master Shifu," Crane said, still shocked by what Yin had just done.

"Yes, but I'm not," Jin said. "All I could really do was giving him a lecture, but that has never helped. The only other option is more violence, but that wouldn't help either."

Jin sighed again and left to look around the village.

"I suppose this will be one heck of a journey," Mantis groaned and jumped onto Tigress' shoulder. "At least if Yin decides to stay."

"But I wonder wherever he'd go," Crane said. "I mean, his father is dead and all…"

"Then I suppose that he'd just stay with his mother," Tigress replied. Even then, there was still a chance that Yin's mother was dead too, but he hadn't mentioned her… That most likely meant that she was alive.

Tigress, Crane and Mantis walked together through the village. Despite being inside a forest, it did remind them a bit of the village back in the Valley – there was even a little pavilion, which seemed to be used for eating in… perhaps even noodle soup.

"I kind of miss home already," Mantis sighed. This was new – the insect had never complained about that before. The group was used to traveling after all, but maybe it was just to say something – the three hadn't said anything prior to that after all.

"Yeah," Crane agreed, though sounding a little dull.

"If you do, you could just return," Tigress told her friends selflessly. "I can take care of myself – besides, I have Jin too… and Yin too, perhaps."

"But we want to stay," Crane said. "Shifu told us to anyway."

"Yeah, besides, we're your friends," Mantis said with a nod. "And friends help each other, right?"

"Yes, of course," Tigress replied. She sighed. "But this is about me and my past – you don't _have_ to help."

Crane and Mantis fell silent. The three kept walking through the village for a while without talking.

Suddenly an arm landed on Tigress' shoulders. Tigress first looked to the left to see the gray-furred hand on her shoulder, then to right and saw that it was Yin who had his arm around her.

"We should leave," Yin said before Tigress could tell him to remove his arm. At first Tigress thought that Yin was hitting on her, meaning him and her, but he continued: "We're only risking your life by staying here."

"What do you mean?" Tigress asked.

"I found a lynx in one of the closets," Yin said. "I threw him in the trash, but I'm sure there are others here – they work for Hei Shi."

Almost as if they answered his question, the lynxes came. The doors of some of the nearby houses flew open and the small felines came out. Yin just chuckled in an I-knew-it-kind-of-way and the others took on a battle stance.

"Tigress, can I ask you something?" Yin asked, surprising Tigress by calling her by her second name.

"What do you have in mind… Yin?" she asked as the lynxes surrounded them.

"Actually all of you."

"What?" Mantis asked.

"Now that Jin is not here, can you do the countdown with me?"

Tigress, Crane and Mantis looked at each other. Sure it was fitting when Jin and Yin did it, but none of the three could imagine themselves doing it. But eventually they agreed to do it.

"Three…" Mantis said.

"… Two…" Crane continued.

"… One…" Tigress clenched her fists, ready to break into a fight.

"… Showtime!" at the sound of Yin's keyword, the four jumped into each direction to fight off the lynxes.

Mantis already took off from the ground and jumped forwards, hitting the first lynx in the head with a hard kick with his two right legs. He then used the feline's face to bounce off onto the next, which he also hit in the head with a powerful dual kick.

Mantis landed on the ground, jumping aside, as one of the lynxes tried to step on him. The next foot came, but this time Mantis stopped the foot with his claws. He swung the lynx around, using him as a dummy weapon against his teammates.

Crane spread out his wings and took off. The lynxes before him were unable to hit him when he was so high above the ground. Finally Crane dived down towards the small felines, striking them with not only his legs, but also his wings, getting through the air only by gliding for a short while.

When he finally landed, Crane immediately had to use his wings to block off some incoming punches from the lynxes and also dodge the daggers of some of them. As a group of four lynxes attacked him, trying to stab him, Crane gracefully dodged and then used his wings to literally sweep the lynxes away.

Tigress blocked an incoming punch with her left hand, then pushed the lynx's fist sideways. Finally she smashed her right fist against the lynx's chest, then moved her arm backwards and hit another lynx in the face with her elbow.

The feline then jumped forwards, hitting several lynxes with a quick series of kicks. As soon as she landed, Tigress was surrounded by more lynxes. She jumped into the air as the lynxes closed in on her, doing a round-house kick midair, hitting them all with her right foot.

As if she didn't have enough to worry about already – now she also had these nuisances of henchmen. Tigress would have rather done pushups on one hand with all her fingers broken, than fight these annoying lynxes.

Tigress saw another lynx close to her, but suddenly a blur of gray fur kicked it away. "You know, our job is to protect you – you don't even have to fight yourself, woman."

"_Our_ job?" Tigress asked with a raised eyebrow and a faint smile.

"Well…" Yin looked away for a moment, realizing what he had just said.

"So you'll stay?" Mantis asked and kicked another lynx away.

"I don't know… maybe we could just leave without…" Yin ducked and did a backflip, hitting a lynx in the face with his feet before landing. "… Jin."

"Speaking of, where is that guy?" Crane asked.

"Who cares? We're fine, aren't we?" Yin asked and kicked another lynx away. Yin moved both of his arms to the right and twisted his body a little as well. Then he let his tension spring up, leaped into the air and made several sideways flips while spinning around, hitting several lynxes with his feet. "Besides, he doesn't even fight with us, so why should we…"

"I'm right here, you stupid kitten." Tigress turned around, just as she punched another lynx. It was Jin. The Tibetan wolf had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and he was suddenly fighting off the lynxes.

"Jin, where the heck have you been?" Yin growled.

"Busy."

"That's not a place," Mantis pointed out, which Yin chuckled at. "Either way, we could use the extra help."

Jin grabbed a lynx by his collar, threw him upwards and then hit him with a punch, sending him flying towards his own teammates. Jin then jumped forwards; hitting another lynx with a kick, then turned around and punched another.

"Ready, kid?" Jin asked Yin as he landed right next to the snow leopard.

"For what?" Yin asked coldly.

"Countdown of course!" Jin said as if it was obvious.

"Meh, it's not needed – we already did that without you."

"… What?! But I'm a vital part of it!" Jin complained as Yin knocked out a few more lynxes with powerful punches.

"Too bad – Mantis and Aiyun took your place." Tigress, who was still fighting off lynxes, turned to look at the cold snow leopard. His cold words were almost like frost in the air and Tigress couldn't help but wonder: what did he mean with that?

Did he mean that he wouldn't want to be Jin's student anymore? That he was done with that and officially had decided to leave the mission for good? Was that how important the countdown was to those two?

"Yin," Tigress started as she stood back-to-back with him, surrounded by lynxes.

"Aiyun," Yin said calmly.

"Are you not going to ever get along with Jin again?"

"Possibly… just not right now," the snow leopard replied coldly.

"And are you also not going to follow us and…" Tigress really needed to gather all of her softcore parts to say this: "Protect me?"

"If you want me to," Yin said camly, not sounding very motivated to do it.

Yin jumped in forwards in the direction he faced, moving his arms in wide wave-like motions, then smashing his fist against the lynxes' heads, knocking out more of the smaller felines.

"Only if I want you to? How come?" Tigress asked as she also attacked some of the lynxes. She blocked an incoming punch, kicked the attacker and then managed to catch the blade of a dagger between her palms. Finally she pushed the dagger away and grabbed the lynx by his collar and threw him into the air. Finally she positioned herself so that he would land on her foot, then used all her power to smash him against the ground with her foot.

"I have my reasons," Yin said calmly. Tigress didn't understand. A few moments ago he had seemed to not want to have anything to do with the mission… Now he seemed to only want to come along, if Tigress told him to.

"Anything to do with me?" Tigress asked suspiciously.

"Only partially, but not my main reason," Yin said and jumped into the air. He rapidly spun around his own axis, hitting several lynxes with kicks, knocking them out. "I made a promise... The rest is… private."

Tigress punched another lynx in the head, as he ran towards her to attack. Tigress didn't understand Yin. First he acted all cold and covered up, next he acted like he had opened up… but then he seemed to close up again. Whatever motifs the snow leopard had, Tigress couldn't seem to figure them out.

* * *

"Alright, I guess this is where we say goodbye, isn't it?" Yin asked Jin coldly. The previous night had gone by rather easy – there had been no other lynxes to fight, even though Jin had insisted on staying up, keeping a watch.

"But where will you go?" Jin asked confused, almost sounding like he was panicking.

"I don't know… I'll find some place," the snow leopard replied. He then took a deep breath, taking in the fresh morning air.

Suddenly Tigress remembered something. "Wait."

"Aiyun, I don't think anything can change his…"

"Yin Yueliang, I demand you to come with us," Tigress said, trying her best to sound… well, demanding.

Everyone looked over at Tigress in confusion. She waited a few seconds as she looked at Yin's surprised face. Then she continued. "I want you to come with us… I need you to come with us."

Jin sighed. "I'm sorry, but I don't think that…"

"Fine, then I'll come along," Yin said in a somewhat determined, though very obeying too – almost like a servant. He then started walking. "Let's get going then."

"How'd you do that?" Jin asked Tigress as he the others also started walking.

"He told me that he'd only come along if I wanted him to," Tigress replied calmly.

"And that is all?" Mantis asked confused. "So he's your servant now?"

"I'm her friend with merits," Yin shouted to the others, obviously having heard them talking about him.

The others kept walking in silence for a few minutes. Tigress tried to figure out Yin once again. The young snow leopard was hard to figure out. Being a few years younger than Tigress – seemingly – Tigress had a little trouble understanding him… not that his personality made it any easier.

And what had happened to his father? Was it anything linked to Hei Shi? Or was it linked to Tigress in some kind of way? Maybe their fathers were friends or something?

"When are you going to tell me?" Tigress asked Yin and walked up beside him.

"When I feel like you need to know," he replied, sounding so mysterious again. Tigress just nodded and stopped talking. She could clearly sense that the snow leopard didn't want to talk about it, so she felt that the best option would be to keep quiet too.

"So where exactly are we going?" Mantis asked Jin.

"We're going to a town, Shengda Hua," Jin explained. That's where we dropped off Aiyun's brother."

"Brother…" Tigress quietly whispered the word as if she said it for the first time. She didn't know what to expect from her brother… just because they were related by blood didn't mean that they were similar in personalities. Who knew, maybe he was arrogant or ignorant… But hopefully he wasn't much different from Tigress herself.

"What's it like?" Tigress asked.

"Shengda Hua?" Jin asked. Tigress nodded. "I haven't been there since, but I know that the town is famous for its great ponds where the lotus flowers blossom."

"So you haven't checked up on my brother?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"But… can you at least tell me something about him?" Tigress begged, surprising herself – she didn't intentionally ask, but one part of her had to know… had to know something about this fragment of her own past.

"Well… his name is Fengbao," Jin said, seemingly not remembering clearly, though he seemed sure after he had said the name. "And all I remember is that he looks a lot like you."

"Is he Tigress' older brother?" Crane asked curiously. It kind of felt weird to Tigress that her friend would be talking about the brother that she didn't know… but not something she couldn't take.

"Yes, he's one year older than her," Jin said. The Tibetan wolf then looked over at Yin. Jin knew that Yin wouldn't remember such things. After all, he was very young when it all happened.

"So… is Shengda Hua far away?" Mantis asked as the five continued.

"Not really. There are some mountains that we'll have to get past – then we'll be there," Jin replied.

Tigress looked up ahead. She could see some mountains up ahead, but it would still be some hours before they reached them. The others saw them as well.

"Please tell me that there is a way past the mountains," Mantis sighed.

"What's wrong with a little hiking?" Jin asked innocently. Mantis grumbled something about the cold, but basically chose to not bring it up again.

* * *

Bam, there's another chapter! ;) I hope you liked it. I'm working on this story as crazy - it'll be epic! Who needs my other fics? XD Just kidding... kind of. But I'm also working on fics with my girlfriend, as you know, which reminds me: new episode up! Please check it out! :D  
That's all, I'll go work on some more chapters now - Artist of Death has been delayed for too long. See ya'!


	6. Don't Interfere

"Isn't this just great?" Jin asked in an upbeat voice as the fresh morning air blew through his golden fur. Tigress could only agree – the mountain breeze was chilly, but still nice. Not only nice to inhale, but also nice against her fur and skin.

She looked over at Yin. The snow leopard seemed to enjoy it as well. Mantis was actually the only one, who didn't seem to enjoy the cooler air. Yin also seemed to have opened up some more, actually talking to Jin. Talking about… food?

Whatever that had to do with anything, Tigress couldn't seem to understand. But the fact that everything was seemingly returning to normal was… good. At least returning to how normal things could get around Jin and Yin.

"I wonder what the others are doing," Crane sighed as he rustled his wings and let a single feather escape his wing, letting it be carried away by the mountain wind.

"Seemingly Hei Shi's goons followed us here," Mantis said. "Maybe that means that they've figured out that Tigress isn't at Jade Palace anymore."

"Most likely," Tigress said in a strategic tone of voice. "But if we can get to Shengda Hua, maybe my brother could help us."

"Hopefully," Jin added. The five soon came to a narrow mountain path, which led around the side of the one mountain. They stood there for a moment, doing nothing but looking at the view before them. Below them was a village, a relatively big one, and there were several ponds and lakes with what seemed lotus flowers on the surface.

Judging by using her eyes only, Tigress figured that they wouldn't be there before nightfall. If they were lucky, they wouldn't have to stop for the night.

Suddenly Tigress' chest felt empty and hollow - the fact that her brother she had never met was so close… it completely took her breath away. She felt strange; longing… as if she knew her future could rest within the village in front of her. That was only if her brother wanted to help them.

"I wonder what he's grown up to become," Jin said, almost sounding rather fatherly.

"I guess we'll see," Tigress whispered, only loud enough for her to hear. She then looked towards the village and whispered: "Brother, whoever you are… are you really there?"

"Is something wrong, Aiyun?" Jin asked suddenly, surprising Tigress quite a bit.

She almost gasped in surprise, but quickly excused herself. "No, nothing's wrong. I'm just a little cold."

"You're cold?" Yin asked, surprisingly sounding somewhat kind. "You can have my jacket then."

"No, no," Tigress quickly replied. "It's fine. Besides, if you take off your jacket, _you'll_ be the one freezing."

"If you say so, Aiyun," Jin said, even before Yin said anything, which seemed to annoy the snow leopard.

"I do believe I was taught the art of speaking myself," Yin muttered annoyed, obviously not feeling like getting into another argument.

"Can't we just get moving?" Mantis asked, shivering a little due to a cold breeze that blew by. Tigress felt the breeze as well, but to her, it didn't feel just cold. It didn't feel natural – almost like someone else's presence. She looked around for a moment. No one was there.

"I agree," Tigress quickly said. "Let's go."

The group immediately started moving again, but they only got about a hundred meters when something came from the sky. It was feathery and was heading right for Tigress, but before it could, Yin jumped in front of her.

"Master Tigress…! I- ACK!" Zeng gasped for air when Yin grabbed him by his throat.

"Who are you?" Yin asked suspiciously, loosening his fist a little, which would allow the goose to talk.

"I'm Zeng," the little goose managed to say. "I'm here with… a message from Master… Shifu…!"

"It's alright, Yin," Tigress said, since Zeng's words only seemed to make Yin even more suspicious.

"Yeah, we know him," Mantis agreed, eventually getting Yin to drop the goose to the ground.

Zeng cleared his throat a few times, rubbing his throat too. Then he walked over to Tigress and handed a scroll to her. Mantis and Crane went over to read it over her shoulder.

"Tigress, Mantis, Crane; Hei Shi's henchmen haven't attacked us since you left," Crane read out loudly for Jin and Yin. "I believe this means that they're following you. By the time you receive this, I've already sent Po and the others. Meet up with them in Zhiming City. Good luck, Shifu."

"Zhiming City?" Yin asked half annoyed. "Great, first we need to pick up Fengbao and convince him, right?"

"Yes," Jin said. He then sent a look to Yin, which signaled that he knew something that Tigress and her friends weren't supposed to know. "Is that a problem?"

Yin looked at Tigress and the others for a short moment, then looked back at Jin. "No, not at all."

"And after that?" Mantis asked, sounding rather anxious. "What will happen then?"

"We'll see what happens, I guess," Jin said. Tigress didn't quite know what to expect. She looked over at Yin. The snow leopard looked somewhat sad and anxious, but he did his best to keep up a straight face.

"Yin, is there anything that I don't know, which I should?" Tigress asked Yin, who seemed startled by her question. He quickly looked over at Jin. Exchanging eye contact with the older wolf, Yin looked back at Tigress afterwards.

"No, not at all," Yin said, echoing what he had just said moments ago.

The group continued walking towards the town, having to climb down a cliff on the side of one of the mountains in order to get to solid ground. On the way down, Crane had been flying down, so that he would be able to catch anyone if they would accidentally slip and fall.

But they all managed to climb most of the way down. But suddenly along the way, Tigress stepped on a loose rock. The rock gave under beneath her weight and she wasn't fast enough to react.

But Yin was. He quickly jumped down from where he was and grabbed Tigress by her hand. After that, Yin quickly released his claws on his hand and dug them into the ground, trying to brake. Luckily the side of the mountain wasn't completely vertical.

"Yin, what are you doing?!" Jin called behind the two. Using his claws as brakes didn't quite work and eventually the two managed to slide most of the way down. All it really resulted in was Yin's claws getting messed up.

"Is this going like you expected?" Tigress asked as the two kept sliding.

"Not really… any ideas?" Yin asked. Then the snow leopard realized just how close they were to the solid ground. "But maybe it's not need-…"

But suddenly Tigress chose to brake with the claws on her feet. Yin, who was still holding onto her hand, wasn't prepared for this, and it resulted in him being thrown forwards.

"Oh no, not it'll end nasty! Aiyun, Yin!" Jin told them others as he and the others climbed down as fast as they could. Crane quickly dived downwards towards Yin and Tigress, but he didn't manage to get to them before they eventually landed.

Tigress first landed on top of Yin, but soon the two started rolling down the last part of the mountain side. Eventually the two landed with Tigress on top of Yin. Due to the fact that Tigress was bigger than him, even despite the fact that Yin was slightly older, it was kind of hard for Yin – both his outer body and his skeleton inside for that matter.

Tigress quickly got off of Yin. "Yin, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Yin replied, stretching his back, which caused a popping sound to emit from his spine as Crane landed beside him. Yin then realized that his back was stuck in the same stretching position. "Okay, maybe not."

"Aiyun!" Tigress turned around and saw Jin and Mantis coming down from the mountain, joining the others.

"Mantis, can you fix his back?" Crane asked. "It looks pretty bad."

"Well… I can try," Mantis replied, then jumped onto Yin's back, grabbing onto his jacket with his claws.

Mantis then placed his two right legs against Yin's spine, then pushed them forwards. At the same time he pulled Yin's shoulders backwards, which resulted in a loud popping noise.

"Ah~… thanks," Yin said with relief. He then turned towards Tigress. "Are you okay... Tigress?

"I'm fine," Tigress replied, surprised that Yin called her by her second name and not by her original name. "But let's get moving now, shall we?"

"Yeah, let's," Yin agreed.

"Wait, are you sure you're not hurt, Aiyun?" Jin asked. "Maybe we should-…"

"She said she's fine, didn't she?" Yin asked and stepped in front of Tigress. The tone that Yin had used alone, seemed to make Jin angry, but he got angry for a whole other reason.

"Why do you keep standing in front of me?!" Jin growled at his student as he caught him in a chokehold.

"About a million," Yin replied daringly.

"You-…! You just never learn, you little-…!" Jin suddenly flipped Yin, eventually making him land on the ground. Jin then turned to Tigress. "So you really are okay?"

"Yes, Yin already told you," Tigress said, sounding somewhat stiff in her tone of voice.

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

"Yin, can I talk to you for a moment?" Jin asked Yin suddenly. The snow leopard just shrugged and was soon dragged off by the older canine. Tigress tilted her head a little to the right in a suspicious manner, but Jin sent her an assuring smile.

"What was that about?" Mantis muttered once the duo had gotten out of sight.

Tigress couldn't help but find Jin's sudden behavior strange.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Jin growled at Yin and grabbed at his collar.

"I don't know what you think you're-…"

"You know as well as I what I think I'm talking about!" Jin pulled Yin's face closer to his, only a few centimeters between them. "Don't. Interfere. With. The. Mission!"

"I don't – I know what I'm doing," Yin growled back.

"Don't talk to me like that! I know what I saw back there!"

Yin clenched his fist. "So you're mad just because I don't just care for myself for once in my life?"

"I didn't say that," Jin growled, sounding a bit calmer than before. "But we have a goal to accomplish and if you involve your feelings, it could mess it all up. So please put them back where you dug them up."

Jin then walked back to the group, while Yin stayed behind for a few seconds. With just one word, he followed. "Jerk."

* * *

**A/N: **Hi guys, finally an update! Been a while, hasn't it? Sorry, was with my girlfriend during the period around New Years Eve and was busy with other stuff *Wink-wink* and by other stuff I mean Fruit Ninja. I still can't beat her record! D: Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter, and I'll see you with the next update! :D


	7. Present, Meet Past

**A/N:** Eh... well... Yeah, I know it's almost been a month - don't kill me! But I have been busy with college and my recent trip to New York and this weekend I celabrated an early Valentine's Day with my girlfriend... But now I'm back! I hope those few people reading are still here... are you?... *Cricket* Ehm... okay, anyways, enjoy - crickets. ;)

* * *

When they finally made their way into the village, Tigress felt strange. It was the feeling you get when you wake up and you're unsure whether your dream truly was a dream, or if it was something that happened yesterday.

Shengda Hua was beautiful and all, yes, but she paid very little attention to that – all she was really looking for was another tiger; her brother.

Yin, Mantis and Crane, on the other hand, were all very amused by the village's beauty – the ponds with lotus flowers on the surface, the beautiful dragon sculptures on the rooftops.

Jin was the only other person who knew that they were there for a reason, other than Tigress, and determined he led Tigress and the others through the village.

"Come on, Tigress," Yin told Tigress, patting her shoulder. This resulted in a poisonous look from Jin, which Yin returned, just in a blue version. "You're starting to look like Jin."

"Who said that is a bad thing," Jin said poisonously.

"Who asked you?" Yin asked carelessly and ignored the canine. "What I mean, Tigress, is that you should take a chill – just for a while."

"But I need to find my brother," Tigress said sternly and pushed Yin's arm away as he tried to put it around her neck. "You may not care, but-…"

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way," Yin said and walked a few steps away from the bigger feline.

"No, wait, Yin," Tigress said quickly, realizing her mistake by talking to him like that. Jin turned his head a little to follow the upcoming conversation. He had a bad feeling about it.

"Sorry, I'm just a little tense," Tigress replied, sighing.

"Tense?" Jin immediately asked, causing Yin to roll his eyes at the older canine. "Tired? Maybe we should stop by somewhere and take a break."

"Sounds good to me," Crane agreed and Mantis agreed too. Eventually the group came across a little restaurant. It had somewhat of a resemblance to Mr. Ping's noodle shop, but it had several servants instead of just one Po, clumsily making his way past the small tables.

Tigress and the rest of the group made their way to a table near the right wall of the restaurant. Tigress sat between Jin and Monkey, facing the Yin and the wall behind him.

"Hello, welcome to Lotus Noodles, what can I help you with?" the waiter greeted the group. Tigress turned her head and felt her heart skip a beat. Before her stood a tiger.

He was seemingly a few years older than her and he wore some brown and green robes. It wasn't made of silk, so obviously he had had a much different childhood and life than Tigress had.

There was a few minutes where no one spoke. Finally the young tiger said, "What would you like, Miss?"

"Skip the formalities, Fengbao," Yin said.

"H-how do you know my name?" Fengbao asked confused, but he probably already knew the answer.

"That's not important right now," Tigress said, already feeling her heart beat faster as she exchanged her first words with her long-lost brother. "What's important is that… you're my brother… and…"

"And you're both in danger right this moment now," Yin blurted out.

Just as he said that, something flew past Tigress head, almost hitting her, but finally contacting with the wall behind her – a dagger.

The group turned towards the door to the restaurant and found a bunch of lynxes. Wait, how had Yin known this, Tigress couldn't help but wonder.

"Have you ever had any training?" Jin asked Fengbao as he took on a fighting pose.

"Eh… not quite," Fengbao replied nervously.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of them!" Yin said and jumped into the table. This immediately got complaints out of the restaurant's owner, an old goat. But the owner soon stopped as he realized that his restaurant was being attacked.

"Right! Let's get to it!" Yin said. ""Jin, let's go!"

"Heck yeah! But don't give me orders!" Jin added before taking on a battle pose. "Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Showtime!" Yin jumped forwards, off of the table with a sideways spin, landing right in front of Jin, blocking his sight.

"Hey, why'd you do that?" Jin growled and pushed Yin aside.

"Does that really matter right now?" Crane asked annoyed and took off, ready to fight.

"Either way, it's Showtime!" Yin said and jumped forwards with an upwards kick, hitting a lynx in the head. The kick sent the smaller feline flying backwards, landing on his back.

"You heard him," Jin told the others. "It's Showtime!"

Jin charged forwards, blocking an attack from a lynx with his left hand, then punched him in the chest with his right. Jin blocked two incoming daggers by catching the hands of the lynxes that wielded them. Shortly after, Jin threw the two lynxes towards some of their teammates.

Meanwhile, Tigress grabbed Fengbao by his arm. Just before starting to drag her long-lost brother towards the exit, Tigress felt as if a jolt of electricity ran through her body.

Merely the touch of her brother sent a stream of memories through her mind and for a moment countless images flashed before her eyes; a family; unfamiliar and familiar faces; Fengbao; Jin; Yin; her parents.

Shaking it off, Tigress dragged her brother towards the door of the restaurant. Still holding onto her brother's arm, she kicked a lynx away as he tried to stop them.

Tigress briefly had to let go of Fengbao's arm in order to fight off some of the lynxes. At the same time, her brother was briefly left defenseless and nervously backed up against the wall.

Suddenly Fengbao saw the restaurant's owner, Mr. Shao, try to escape. As some lynxes noticed him, Fengbao made a reckless move and dashed towards his boss – and adoptive father.

Not so elegantly, Fengbao grabbed one of the lynxes and simply pulled him away with all the power he had. The lynx landed on one of the tables and Fengbao jumped in front of Mr. Shao in order to shield him from the attackers.

Still shielding him, Fengbao helped Mr. Shao towards the door, but was cut off by the lynxes.

A dash of feathers suddenly swept away a few of the lynxes. Crane elegantly used his wings and his talons to disarm some of the lynxes, then knocked them out with relative ease.

"Thanks," Fengbao quickly said and helped Mr. Shao out of the restaurant. Turning around, Fengbao's face was almost cut in halves by a lynx's dagger.

With a somewhat girly scream, he managed to dodge. Before the lynx could have a second try, Mantis knocked him out, snickering at Fengbao's scream.

"That's so hardcore," Mantis chuckled to himself before attacking another lynx. At the same time, Fengbao found himself in the middle of a heated fight, only able to watch as the people around him fought.

Suddenly someone grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to the side. Fengbao just barely managed to land on his feet as he watched his sister fight off lynxes while still holding onto his hand.

Yin landed on the ground behind the two, rolling a little. It wasn't because he had been knocked to the ground, but because he had made a crazy jump. When Yin looked up, the first thing he saw was Tigress and Fengbao – and one detail in particular…

"Guys, we can't handle this in here," Jin said and knocked another lynx to the ground with a massive headshot of a punch. "We need to get outside."

"But it's going great," Fengbao asked. Everyone threw a stern stare at him, since he was the only one who didn't fight. "Never mind…"

"We have to," Jin continued. "Yin and I fight better in open spaces."

The group quickly managed to fight their way to the exit. Once they were outside, Yin jumped into the air, landing on the shoulders of a lynx after doing a backflip.

"Much better out here," Yin said, obviously showing off a little. Yin then continued the fighting by jumping into the air hitting a few lynxes with a series of spins and kicks in the air.

Soon Yin had managed to knock about half of the lynxes to the ground.

"Whoa, where did that come from?" Jin wondered as he and the others fought off the lynxes as well. Jin swept the feet of a lynx away, then used a punch to smash him to the ground.

"Don't know, but I'm not complaining," Mantis added. The insect grabbed a lynx by the shin, swung him in a circle above his head and smashed him against another. Mantis then disappeared in a dash, managing to knock out three more lynxes in no time.

"Just keep close," Tigress told her brother, still getting the strange sensation of nostalgia whenever she spoke to him. She kept him close, still holding his hand while fighting off the lynxes.

Finally Tigress and her friends managed to knock out the last lynxes. Amazed by their effective fighting, Fengbao said, "Wow, impressive! Where have you all learned to fight like that?"

"Here and there…" Yin replied with no particular tone of mood in his voice, sounding very dull.

"Either way, will you guys explain what is going on now?" Fengbao asked. As she looked around, Tigress noticed that there were a lot of villagers watching, some even looked frightened.

"Maybe we should find another place for that," she said calmly, everyone else agreeing.


	8. Backto Business (In several ways)

**A/N: **What's this? AN UPDATE?! Okay, before you flame me, yes, I know it's been forever! But truth is... Something I might as well just make public now... During all this time I have wanted to reinvent myself - I made a new account. Yes, I've been posting stories under a different name. This was because I wanted to have a fresh start with fanfiction, but... Now I've decided that I'll keep both accounts active, so I might as well just announce this. Either way, the other account is called 'Le Kung Fu Dude', so you can check that out if you want - although now, it's time for the story (Again. ^^;).

* * *

"Alright, let's make this short," Jin said after he and Yin blocked the door with some big crates. The group, as well as Fengbao and Mr. Shao, had hid in a little warehouse of some sort. We are here-…"

"We came here to save you, a guy's trying to get you, end of story," Yin said sliding in front of Jin as he did so, but was quickly tossed aside by the older wolf.

"More or less," Jin admitted. He then turned a more serious tone on. "When you were still a child, a man named Hei Shi tried to kill your family. I brought you here to save you… But now he has somehow managed to find your sister, Aiyun here, and so we came to save you as well."

Fengbao looked very shocked. He took a deep breath, then sat down on a crate. "So what you're saying is… a guy is basically trying to kill me for no reason?!"

"More or less, get over it," Yin said, but this time Jin grabbed him by his collar and tossed him away. This time Yin landed among a bunch of sacks containing flour.

"Don't mind him – he was born like that, I think," Jin said, referring to Yin's personality. "But what is important is that we need to get to Zhiming City. Some of our allies will be waiting there."

Fengbao stared at Jin for a moment, then he looked over at Tigress and her friends. As he looked at Tigress, she became melancholic again – it was still new to her that her long-lost brother was right in front of her.

Fengbao looked back at Jin. "Zhiming City… why there of all places? I know it's not that far away, but… I've been there… It's so busy – filled with people all the time."

"Exactly," Jin said. Seemingly he had been involved in planning this. "We wanted to pick a place where we'd attract as little attention as possible."

"And then what?" Fengbao asked. "When we get there, what happens?"

"It'll come in time…"

"No, I want answers now!" Fengbao growled. There was a moment of silence. "I don't even know if I can trust you guys!"

"Fengbao," Mr. Shao said, finally speaking. "You may not realize it, but these people have saved your life before… How can you not trust them?"

"But it's so long ago, I don't even know-…"

Tigress got up and walked over to her brother. She placed her hands on his shoulders and stared him in the eyes. "Fengbao… When they came to me a few days ago… I was skeptic as well, of course. I felt just like you feel right now… But please, listen to me: you need to come along. I haven't known Jin and Yin for long, but I know that they will do anything to protect both of us."

"Why do people always mention me last?" Yin asked, having made his way up from the flour sacks and was brushing flour off of his clothes. Jin simply pushed him back down.

"The point is that you need to trust me," Tigress said. "You may not know me, but you're still my brother."

At this Fengbao fell silent again. He then looked away from Tigress. Then he walked a bit away from her. Walking over to a wall, he stared at it for a moment. Suddenly he turned to Mr. Shao. "Dad?"

"Yes?" Mr. Shao asked.

"Will you make my favorite cake for me when I get back?" Fengbao asked. At this, Jin, Tigress and her friends took a breath of relief. For a moment Tigress thought that the older tiger wouldn't come along.

"Of course," Mr. Shao said with a smile. Suddenly the tiger rushed over and caught the old goat in a hug, much to the latter's surprise.

After a few seconds Fengbao turned to the others. "Alright, I'm ready."

"Aren't you going to pack anything?" Crane asked surprised.

With a faint smile (He looked a lot like Tigress while doing so) Fengbao shook his head. "Nah, I can't really think of anything important… Besides, the sooner we leave, the better, right?"

"Agreed," Jin said. "Now, let's go."

Soon the group made their way outside after removing the stuff they had used to block the door with. Fengbao gave his adoptive father his goodbyes. He hugged him once again, but that was about it – Tigress guessed that Fengbao didn't want to make it overemotional or anything.

Soon the group was making their way out of the village. Fortunately the lynxes hadn't managed to follow them and as soon as they were a fair distance away, they started walking instead of running.

As the group continued, Tigress took the time to explain everything properly to Fengbao; about how Hei Shi had a grudge against their father and what Hei Shi had supposedly done.

It hurt Tigress just to talk about it and she could also tell that Fengbao didn't seem too comfortable with it. But nonetheless, Fengbao had every right there was to know about it all.

Suddenly Yin stopped.

"What is it?" Jin asked surprised.

"Carry me," Yin said bluntly, surprising the entire group.

"What?!"

"I said carry me," Yin said determinedly and also sounding a bit childish in Tigress' opinion.

"Why would I do that?" Jin asked sternly.

"Because I need attention," Yin said.

"Well, you've passed thirty; you're no kitten anymore," Jin said annoyed and continued on. Yin just seemed annoyed as well and continued. Tigress found it odd – Yin saying that he needed attention and all. He hadn't ever said that before. Granted, he was an egoist, which Tigress had known for quite some time already.

Taking the first chance given, Tigress led the snow leopard a little away from the others and asked, "Is something?"

"No, why?" Yin asked and Tigress noticed that he was seemingly acting different from a few seconds ago.

"You just said you needed attention," Tigress said calmly.

"Well, I'm getting it now, am I not?" Yin asked as the group continued. Tigress didn't reply, but simply continued alongside her friends and her brother. To Tigress it seemed that Yin enjoyed her company somehow.

Well, maybe it wasn't so weird; both had lost their parents, which was something thing they had in common, so maybe it was something that Yin found troubling – something that he kept hiding behind his egoistic façade.

Tigress didn't want to ask however, given that the others were there as well – and Yin probably wouldn't tell her.

* * *

"Are you sure we can't make a camp for the night?" Fengbao groaned. The sun had set long ago and the group was solely navigating by the moon light – except for those of them that had night vision.

"I agree," Crane said. "We're already so far ahead – I doubt Hei Shi's henchmen will catch up with us tonight."

Jin didn't seem too thrilled about the idea. The wolf then explained how he'd prefer it if they'd continue, thus get to Zhiming City sooner.

"But we won't even reach it if we travel all night," Mantis pointed out and Crane and Fengbao both agreed.

"Alright fine," Jin said. "But let's find a safer place."

The group eventually came to a forest. Inside they stumbled upon something that looked like an abandoned house of some sort. It was big – so big in fact that Tigress for a moment thought it was a temple of some sort.

But as they came closer, they saw that it was just an abandoned house. It appeared strange though that a house would be out here in the middle of a forest. Upon inspecting it, which meant Jin throwing Yin through a window, it appeared completely deserted and empty.

"It's empty," Yin said after opening the door from the inside. "We'll stay here."

"Agreed… Now we just need something to block off the door," Jin said. Once everyone was inside, Jin continued, getting more strategic. "Now we need to decide who takes the first-…"

"Last one to hit Jin does it!" Yin announced, knowing what the wolf was about to say, and surprisingly everyone but Crane and Tigress did this (Fengbao was also a bit hesitant though). Jin literally looked like he could kill Yin right then and there, but eventually Jin came up with another idea.

"Tell you what, I'll take the first shift then," Jin grumbled annoyed. "You guys just get some sleep if you want."

* * *

In the middle of the night, Tigress woke up. She raised an eyebrow as she found Jin sleeping on the floor amongst the others. Wasn't he supposed to be keeping guard? Granted, Tigress didn't know how long it'd been, so maybe he had switched with someone. Looking around, the only one who was missing was…

Suddenly something hit the ground somewhere in the house – something that sounded like porcelain. Following the direction that the sound had come from, Tigress came upon a kitchen. There she found… None other than Yin.

She took a step closer, the floor of the old house making a loud creaking noise.

"Jin, I swear it wasn't me!" Yin quickly turned around and put up a somewhat awkward battle stance as he held some kind of jar in his right hand. Then he realized that it was just Tigress. "Oh, it's just you."

"What were you doing?" Tigress asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I was just… Hungry," Yin admitted. "We didn't bring anything from that village…"

"I understand," Tigress said. She then noticed how some of the porcelain and drawers had been destroyed. It certainly reminded her of someone else's behavior. "Is something bothering you?"

"No… why do you ask?" Yin asked in an avoiding tone of voice.

"I've seen people that were troubled trying to find something to eat," Tigress replied with a faint smile. Yin just kept up a straight face, trying not to show any emotion at all. "What's wrong then?"

"A lot," Yin said. He walked away from Tigress and walked over to a window, looking outside. He then turned towards Tigress again. "But I can't tell you."

Tigress was surprised at how sad Yin actually looked. Mere moments ago he had kept up a cold stone face, but now… he just looked… sad. Tigress was actually kind of afraid that it was something very bad.

"But… what's it about?" Tigress asked calmly.

"You," Yin said, looking out the window once again. Now Tigress was truly surprised.

"Is it… something that I've done?" she asked carefully. Yin shook his head. "Then… Well, is it about me as a person?" Yin shook his head again. She then sighed. "Is it about the thing with Hei Shi?"

"Partially," Yin replied after a few seconds of silence. "But I can't tell you."

"Please do," Tigress said softly. Yin remained silent and Tigress grew a little annoyed. "Well?"

"Well, nothing," Yin replied. He sighed. "I can't tell you."

"You're _bound_ to tell me now," Tigress almost growled. "You tell me that something's wrong, then you say that it's about the man, who took my family away from me!"

"Who was the one who asked about it in the first place?" Yin growled back, surprising Tigress with his tone. A few seconds of silence went by. Yin then turned to face the window again and in a softer tone he said, "I'm sorry, A-… Tigress, but I can't tell you."

"It's alright," Tigress replied just as softly. "You should go get some sleep – I'll take this next guard shift."


	9. Mysterious

**A/N:** Hi guys! Here's another update! :D This is a little shorter than the last one, but the next one will be longer. :) I hope you're all still enjoying the story. ^-^

* * *

Jin decided to wake up the group early, so that they could leave before the break of dawn. Yin and Fengbao were the ones to complain the most, but eventually everyone came along.

Crane decided to fly back towards the village, just to check if the lynxes were still after them. Jin wasn't too fond of the idea, but eventually agreed.

Soundlessly Crane soared above the woods, scouting downwards, trying to spot the lynxes. He did fly quite some time until he saw that the lynxes had made a little camp in the forest. Soundlessly Crane landed in a tree and watched them for a moment. It didn't seem like they would be getting up anytime soon and he hurried back to the others.

"They have made a camp in the forest," Crane informed Jin. "We have plenty of time before they start moving, I'd say."

"Perfect, let's get going then," Jin said determinedly and started walking in an incredibly fat tempo, the others doing their best to follow. After having walked for some time, Fengbao eventually tried to break the ice between him and the other members of the group.

"So you two have trained with… I'm really not sure if I should call her Tigress or Aiyun," Fengbao finished the sentence after a while.

"Just call her Tigress," Mantis said.

"She responds to both," Crane pointed out.

"Oh… but anyway, you two have trained with her?" Fengbao asked.

Crane nodded. "Yeah, we have for many years already."

"So it's just the three of you?"

"No, there are two more and then there's the Dragon Warrior Po," Crane replied. Suddenly Fengbao realized something.

"Wait, you're Crane and Mantis, right?" The two nodded. "Are you the Master Crane and Mantis?"

The two nodded in response. Fengbao found himself baffled; of course – that was why their names and Tigress' had appeared familiar! "Oh, you're part of the Furious Five! I didn't even realize that till now!"

"Better late than never, I guess," Mantis chuckled.

"Oh, and you train alongside the Dragon Warrior too!" Fengbao said excitedly. "What's he like?"

"Well… big," Mantis chuckled. "… To say the least…"

"I bet he's amazing," Fengbao chuckled. "He did descend to the palace on a ball of fire, and-…"

"Actually it was just a chair with some fireworks," Crane pointed out – Po had told them that himself.

"Hmm?" Fengbao asked confused and Crane and Mantis just chuckled to themselves.

"But either way you look at it, his arrival at the palace was… Well, interesting," Crane said, uncertain of how else he should word himself. "Certainly a day I won't… forget."

"Can't disagree there," Mantis told Fengbao and jumped onto his shoulder. "But you know… Po didn't actually know any Kung Fu when he first came to the Jade Palace."

"He didn't?" Fengbao asked surprised.

"Nope, but that just proves that anyone can become a warrior," Crane chuckled.

Meanwhile the three were talking, Tigress was talking to Jin.

"And when we get to Zhiming… And after we've met up with the others… Then what do we do?" Tigress asked.

"I planned that once we're all together, we might be able to find a place where you can be safe," Jin said. He then continued, "There all seven of us might be able to fend off all of Hei Shi's forces."

Tigress didn't say anything, but inside, she hated the way that Jin treated her like she needed protection – she was strong and skilled enough to fight by herself! But Tigress knew that Jin wouldn't listen to her even then – the wolf was too focused on his mission to listen.

"We will also be able to safe the remains of your family – possibly," Jin added with a reassuring smile. Tigress just returned it with a faint smile. She then looked over at Yin. The snow leopard literally looked like there was no happiness left in his life.

Tigress couldn't help but wonder why. Maybe he was just grumpy about getting woken up early… But he just looked so depressed… So that couldn't be it. Tigress actually was a bit worried about him, but she didn't really know what to say.

* * *

Yin was staring at the ground as he walked. Stupid… Stupid Jin, stupid mission, stupid everything… And Tigress… Yin really hated how she seemed so naïve – from a person like Tigress he would have expected more.

And most of all, the one that Yin hated, was himself. If anything he wished he could rip his own face off right then and there. He looked over at Tigress… She was talking to Jin again…

Yin sighed to himself.

* * *

"Hey, Yin?" Fengbao asked.

"Yes?" Yin asked calmly as the group continued.

"Well, I was just wondering…" Fengbao started. "That ring you're wearing… It looks pretty… Who gave it to you?"

"It was my dad's," Yin said, somewhat coldly, although still keeping his standard calm attitude. "He gave it to me."

"Where's your dad now?" Fengbao asked innocently.

"He's dead," Yin said shortly, immediately making Fengbao feel bad for asking.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Nah, whatever," Yin said calmly, although Fengbao could tell and feel that it did bother the snow leopard – at least just a little. "It was Hei Shi… so at least we're fighting for the same cause."

"Well, except I can't fight," Fengbao sighed. He then changed to a more excited tone. "But you and the others can – I saw you fight; those flips and jumps you do – amazing!"

"Nah; it's pretty standard for my fighting style," Yin said, finally letting off a smile.

"Still! You just jump around the place, kicking people down," Fengbao said in a joyous tone of voice. He then did a jump, kicking meanwhile, trying to mimic Yin. "Hah! Just like that!"

Yin just chuckled to himself. It seemed that Fengbao wasn't that bad after all…. But that just meant another nice, yet naïve person… Yin sighed. Suddenly Fengbao noticed the snow leopard's face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Fengbao asked surprised.

"Nothing," Yin replied, trying not to look at Fengbao.

"Was it because of that with your father?"

"No, I'm telling you, I'm fine," Yin said, but suddenly the snow leopard got a lot ahead of the rest of the group.

Fengbao simply tilted his head slightly to the left. "Strange guy."

"Nah, he's just mad because we had to leave so early," Jin told Fengbao in a reassuring tone of voice.

"Hmm…" Fengbao didn't quite believe it; it had already been several hours since they had left the house. The sun was shining and it was bright day… Yin could impossibly be mad about it now.

Instead Fengbao walked over to his sister, who was walking a little on her own, as Jin started talking to Mantis and Crane.

"Hey," he started.

"Hey," she replied. It was still a bit odd for both of them to know that they were talking to their long lost sibling.

"Have you… noticed anything odd about that Yin-guy?" Fengbao asked. "He just seems…"

"Avoiding?" Tigress finished the sentence. Fengbao simply nodded. "I don't know, but he seems to be acting strange lately… When I first met him, he acted very differently."

"What was he like?"

"And egoist, to put it bluntly," Tigress said. "But I know he isn't a bad person."

"And yet he acts like he doesn't want to talk to anyone?" Fengbao asked. Tigress just shrugged. "I think he's hiding something."

"I have had that thought too," Tigress admitted. "But I can't figure out whatever it might be."

Fengbao just shrugged. It all appeared weird to him; Yin, Jin, the journey, everything – what was the purpose?


	10. Arrival

**A/N: **Hi guys! It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, I've been busy with exams and stuff... But here I am again! Also, a special message to all my 'original' readers; as of June 6th, I will be remaking my first KFP story _Kung Fu Pirate_ into a new story, which I will refer to as _Hijacked_ for now. The new story will be a lot different from the original. Also, if you're a new reader, you'll get to get to know my character Hai (Profile picture) better. :) Either way, this is it for now, enjoy this chapter! :D

* * *

**Edit: **Date was corrected to June 6th, thanks to Rabenkopf for pointing it out. :P ;)

* * *

Strange… certainly strange… That was the only way Tigress could describe Jin and Yin. During the last couple of days, Tigress had noticed a shift in character; Yin had started acting somewhat strange – quiet and mysterious – and Jin was starting to seem more anxious and annoyed, almost stressed.

But when the group had finally arrived in Zhiming City, Jin seemed relived almost. However Yin almost had to be dragged through the city gate; Jin actually did carry him at one point.

Tigress and Fengbao both kept close to the others as they entered the city of busy people.

"So where were we supposed to meet the others?" Crane asked as they made their way through the city.

"I say we check any restaurant we can find," Mantis said. "You know because… Well, Po."

And so they did; the five soon started checking every restaurant they could possibly find. As they did, Tigress couldn't help but have an odd feeling – as if something wasn't quite right somehow.

"Is something wrong, Tigress?" Mantis asked, jumping onto her shoulder. Seemingly he had noticed.

"Something seems… off," Tigress said calmly. She crossed her arms. "I don't know what it is… but…"

"Nah, I'm sure it's nothing," Mantis told her. "I mean, Jin and Yin, at least Jin, know what we're doing."

True, Tigress thought. But do we know?

Finally they found them... but to their surprise, not on a restaurant. Po, Viper and Monkey – mostly Po – was seemingly caught up in watching some people demonstrate some kind of invention.

Tigress softly patted Po's shoulder. At first the great panda didn't notice, but after a while, he eventually turned around. "Tigress!"

Next the great panda caught her in a hug, which she halfheartedly returned, still having that strange feeling.

"Oh, Tigress," Viper said, smiling. "It already feels like it's been a long time."

"Too long, if you ask me," Monkey said with a smile. "How have you been?"

"Well, busy, obviously," Yin said, a faint smile on his face. This actually surprised Tigress – seeing him smile around others and all. Well, at least he wasn't trying to stand in front of Jin or anything.

"You know, those lynx-guys stopped coming right after you left," Po said. "So why'd you let us stay there? It was pointless; we could have come along and helped you guys!"

"Yeah, we could have needed it," Mantis said. "Goons everywhere!"

Suddenly Tigress realized that she had completely forgotten about Fengbao's presence. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him forwards. "My friends… This is my brother… Fengbao."

Po, Viper and Monkey seemed surprised at first, somewhat staring at Fengbao, clearly trying to see the resemblance between him and Tigress. Viper was the first to break the silence. "Fengbao… Nice to meet you, my name is…"

"No need for introductions; I know you all," Fengbao said with a smile. "You're Master Viper, Master Monkey and Po, the Dragon Warrior."

"Haha, he knows who we are," Po said happily. "Awesome!"

"So does most of China," Mantis pointed out, but Po didn't really seem to care.

"So what is the plan now?" Tigress asked, turning to Jin.

"Right now, we find a place to stay for the night," Jin said. He really did sound like he had a plan. Suddenly Yin grabbed Tigress and started leading her away from the others.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jin growled, obviously not too fond of this.

"I just need to talk to her," Yin said.

"We stay together; if you two get lost in this city, who knows when we'll find you?"

"I won't get lost," Yin growled back. "Just how stupid do you think I am?"

Without waiting for an answer, Yin dragged Tigress off, disappearing amongst the crowd. After a while Yin stopped once he had decided that they were far enough away from the others.

"Yin, what are you doing?" Tigress asked, slightly annoyed by his sudden strange behavior.

"You should leave now," Yin said, crossing his arms. He turned away from Tigress for a moment, then looked back at her again. "Like right now."

"What are you talking about?" Tigress asked astonished. She saw no reason at all for Yin to tell her this. "Why should I?"

"Because… I can't tell you why," Yin said after a dramatic pause. Tigress sighed – now the snow leopard had certainly done it. She had told him not to bring up stuff like that!

"Yin, when you say something like that, you really have no choice but to tell me," Tigress said, almost threatening Yin. She stepped closer to him. "What is it?"

Yin stepped away from her, but Tigress grabbed him by his wrist. She repeated, "Yin, tell me."

""So here you are," Jin's voice suddenly said from behind Tigress. She let go of Yin's wrist and turned to Jin. "Are you coming along? We'll go find a place to stay for tonight."

* * *

Jin led Tigress back to the others and together they all set out to find a place to stay at.

"Tigress?" Po asked Tigress. Tigress hadn't talked to the panda for long so a little catching up with him was nice. "The others and I… like, we're all, like, worried about you…"

"I know…" Tigress said calmly. "… and I appreciate that."

"And Master Shifu…" Po stopped for a moment.

"Master Shifu almost came along," Viper explained, joining the two. "He almost wouldn't let us leave without him."

"Really?" Tigress asked surprised. "Then why didn't he?"

"He had to stay," Monkey said. "He had to stay and take care of the palace."

"Couldn't he have left that job with Zheng?" Tigress asked, but then she realized what she had said when she saw her friends' faces. "Never mind…"

"Is something wrong?" Fengbao asked Tigress.

"No, I'm fine," Tigress lied. She had been thinking about what Yin had told her. She simply hadn't been able to get it out of her mind. She was aware that the snow leopard was somewhat strange sometimes, but what had just happened… that was probably amongst the weirdest things that he had ever done… at least towards her.

He had told her to leave… But… Even if she had, had it also included Fengbao or was it only her? And why would Yin want her to leave anyway?

"So… where did you live?" Monkey asked Fengbao, trying to socialize with him.

"I lived in Shengda Hua," Fengbao replied, smiling faintly. When he smiled like this, the others couldn't help but notice just how similar he looked to Tigress – she also smiled in a similar fashion. "Have you guys ever been there?"

"I have once," Viper said. "Long ago… but from what I remember, it's a beautiful place."

"Yeah, I guess," Fengbao chuckled. "But it does get a bit usual when you live there."

"So what did you do?" Po asked. "Like, did you have a job?"

"Well, I was taken in by the owner of a local noodle shop," Fengbao said. "So… Yeah, I have always worked there."

"A noodle shop?" Po asked and everyone immediately found it ironic. "So have I!"

"What?" Fengbao asked confused.

"Po used to work in a noodle shop as well," Crane explained.

"Oh, that means I'm just like you!" Fengbao said excitedly, causing Po chuckle and scratch the back of his neck.

"Haha, yeah, I guess," Po said with a smile. "Oh really, when all of this is over, you should try my dad's noodle soup!"

"Yeah, for real!" Mantis agreed. "It's the best!"

"Well, the noodle soup from the restaurant I worked in was good too," Fengbao said with a chuckle. "I guess we'll have to make a comparison sometime."

"Deal," Po said with a smile. Finally the group came to the place that Jin had talked about. It was an inn, fairly large, named 'The Kicking Hopper'. The name was written in large green characters, although to Tigress they looked somewhat mossy.

"This is it," Jin said. "We can stay here for the night."

"But what about money?" Viper asked. "We've brought some, but… I doubt it'll be enough for all of us."

"Don't worry, I've got this," Jin said Jin then pulled out a fabric bag. Seemingly it was full of money. At first Tigress didn't think much about it, but as she and the others entered the inn, she realized something.

Unmistakably Jin had said that they were low on money. But if they were, what was this? Had the wolf been lying? Or had he somewhat acquired these somewhere? And if so, where did he get them from? Did he steal it or had it been in the house that they had spent the night in? even then, wouldn't it have been considered stealing?

Tigress didn't know why, but she was starting to mistrust Jin and Yin more and more… And she didn't like it… Whatever the reason, she didn't like it.

Thinking more and more about it, Jin had always seemed to have small amounts of money with him somehow. At the restaurant where they had met Fengbao… that was when it had seemed the most prominent, since they generally hadn't spent much money on this journey.

Tigress felt anxious about this… she didn't know what to think… She could clearly feel it – she mostly wanted to leave right away; something wasn't right. But she couldn't tell her friends – not with Jin and Yin around, since they were the core of her mistrust. She had to do something… soon.


End file.
